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The farmers market was absolutely overflowing with cheap local blueberries this weekend and I picked up a lot of them. Although I will finish a lot of them off for breakfast on plain yogurt with a touch of maple syrup, I wanted to do something with them and I knew exactly what. I had been wanting to try doing a cinnamon bun stuffed with fruit or berries and I had originally planned on trying it with strawberries but they disappeared just before I got the chance and a blueberry version now sounded even better. The idea was basically to make cinnamon buns and where you add blueberries to the cinnamon layer before rolling them up. I figured that wild blueberries would be perfect for these cinnamon buns as they were smaller and rolling them up would be easier. I could have just gone with that but I kept thinking about how much I like the blueberry and maple flavour combination and so I decided to replace the sugar in the cinnamon layer with maple sugar and I then mixed some maple syrup into the cream cheese glaze. While I was adding things, I could not resist also adding some chopped pecans which also pair well with blueberries.

The blueberry maple pecan cinnamon buns turned out so amazingly well! I really liked how the blueberries in the cinnamon layer baked up in the buns with many of them bursting and spreading their blueberry goodness even further. The blueberry, maple pecan flavour combination was definitely a winner and it went perfectly in the light and fluffy buns. You can bake the cinnamon buns in several different ways to get different results. You can either leave them with lots of room to spread out when they bake or you can pack they in tightly next to each other to get thicker buns. I baked most of mine in a spring form pan and I put the extras in ramekins and the ones that were baked in the ramekins were my favourites by far.

Blueberry Maple Pecan Cinnamon Buns

Servings: 12

ingredients

1 recipe basic sweet yeast dough (see below)

1/2 cups maple sugar (or white or brown)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup wild blueberries

1/2 cup pecans (toasted and chopped)

1 batch maple cream cheese glaze (see below)

directions

Punch down the dough. and knead for 30 seconds.

Cover the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a 24" by 12" rectangle.

Mix the sugar and the cinnamon and sprinkle it onto the dough followed by the blueberries and pecans.

Roll the dough into a log and pinch and cut it into 12 even slices.

Arrange the buns in a greased pan, cover in plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Bake in a 375F/190C preheated oven until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Top the buns with the glaze and enjoy.

Basic Sweet Yeast Dough

ingredients

1/4 cup water (warm)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs (room temperature)

1/3 cup butter (melted)

1/2 cup sour cream (room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

3 1/4 cups flour

directions

Mix the water, yeast and sugar into a large bowl and let it sit until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Add the sugar, eggs, butter, sour cream, vanilla, salt and 2 cups of flour and mix for 2 minutes at medium or 200 strokes by hand.

Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. (The dough should feel soft and buttery and not sticky.)

Place the dough in a greased the bowl, cover with a damp towel and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Maple Cream Cheese Glaze

ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup maple syrup (or to taste)

directions

Beat the maple syrup into the cream cheese until it reaches hte desired consistency.

This is why you are such a good cook: You think of things I would never think of, which then seem so obvious I almost want to smack my forehead! Cinnamon buns cooked in ramekins -- brilliant! Fruit with cinnamon buns -- fruit other than raisins -- again, brilliant! Maple with blueberries. Oh, my gosh. Thanks for another great, creative post.

Those look absolutely amazing! I've got some challah dough in the fridge that I was going to turn into cinnamon buns but now I might reconsider and add some blueberries and maple into the mix, awesome!

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About Me

I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.